Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Sustainable Energy - Peak Oil - On the Buses - Not so cold North

Aus - Low investment in renewable energySo are renewable sources of energy a viable part of the solution to Australia's power problems? Australia is heavily dependent on coal-fired power - it's cheap and available, but also extremely polluting. But we also have searing sun, blowing gales and pounding waves in abundance, and some of the energy from these sources is now making its way into the power grid. However Australian investment capital to develop alternative energy sources is scarce, and the Federal Government has been accused of not doing enough to encourage the renewable energy sector.

Not So Vast As Our Failure'Our ignorance is not so vast as our failure to use what we know.' Marion King Hubbert
In 1956 a geologist by the name of Marion King Hubbert created a data model that projected that the U.S. would hit peak oil production in 1970. Outside of the field of geology no one of course had any idea of his name or what peak oil meant. Inside the field of geology he was considered at first a harebrained crackpot by many and within the oil industry, he worked for Shell Oil at the time, his scientific reputation and career were almost destroyed. But lo and behold fourteen years later the U.S. did in fact hit its peak in terms of oil production - 9.5 million barrels a day - though the peak, naturally enough, was not recognized as the peak until a few years later when terminal decline set in.

Bus use soars by 45%, new figures claimBus use in Cambridge has shot up by nearly 50 per cent in three years, new figures from Stagecoach reveal. The city's chief bus operator says Cambridge has seen one of the biggest rises in public transport use in the UK, and around double the growth achieved in London. On average, more than 117,000 passengers are now carried on Stagecoach's Citi network each week.

Global warming hits Arctic hardest, study showsGlobal warming is happening twice as fast in the Arctic as anywhere else and could cause everything from the extinction of polar bears to the flooding of large parts of Florida, says a report released yesterday. The report, the most extensive ever done on climate change in the North, calls for immediate action on greenhouse gases. Some hope the eight-country council that commissioned the report will act on its warnings. But others doubt much will happen until southern industry starts to suffer.

"The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart." - Iris Murdoch

About

^That's me^ Believe or not

cileo is an slightly organised and irrevalent look at cycling and sustainable transport in Melbourne, Australia, overseas, and possibly all sorts of stray ephemera that gets caught in between. I adore bicycles (and kittycats), and as Wilf Lunn once uttered, "You learn something new every day if you're not careful....."